It's not exactly the money train, but TriMet is expected to start seeing a return on thousands of citations issued to riders for everything from fare evasion to smoking in bus shelters this year.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is expected to sign a recently passed amendment to a 2011 court-fines overhaul that stripped TriMet of its ability to collect money from tickets issued by its supervisors and transit police officers.

Last year, TriMet's legislative team somehow missed a provision in House Bill 2712 that would funnel the money that once went to the agency into a new state public-safety fund. Since Jan. 1, it has been unable to collect a single penny from intensifying rules enforcement on trains and buses.

The amendment, passed as part of House Bill 4167 during this year's Legislature, would treat TriMet violations the same as those issued by city, county and state police forces.

Without it, TriMet, which is already struggling to fill a $17 million budget gap, stands to lose about $250,000 this year.

The amendment waiting for a signature on the governor's desk would also reimburse TriMet for revenue that it would have otherwise collected between Jan. 1 and April 1.

HB 2712 was a much-needed simplification of how revenue from criminal fines, assessments and other financial penalties is distributed.

No one in Salem or at TriMet knows exactly why the bill shifted payment of all fines issued by officers enforcing the codes of "special districts" such as TriMet to a new account to pay for crime-victim programs, police training, courthouse upgrades and myriad other public-safety programs.

"The language change in that bill was not intended to affect TriMet," said Sen. Rod Monroe, D-Portland, who carried the amendment to the floor two weeks ago. "But it did, and that was really bad, especially when I and other supporters have been urging TriMet to increase their enforcement on people trying to ride free for years."

Last summer, unaware that the Legislature had ended TriMet's ability to collect fines, General Manager Neil McFarlane started his much-publicized crackdown on fare cheats.

For years, Oregon's largest transit agency had received $69 of every $175 fare-evasion citation and the $580,000 for six new fare inspectors, McFarlane said, would be covered in part by revenue from the expected flood of tickets.

In January, for example, the enforcers wrote 1,795 citations and gave 559 warnings, an astounding flip-flop from the same month a year before, which saw 192 fines and 1,223 warnings.

The amendment in HB 4167 would require TriMet to submit the first $60 from each violation to the new Criminal Fines Account. Although TriMet's share of a $175 ticket would be $69, the courts often reduce fines. In Multnomah County, for example, TriMet receives about $20 per citation, on average.

On Monday, TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said the agency believes "we were inadvertently prevented from receiving a portion of our fines" by the 2011 legislation.

In the House, Republican Bill Kennemer, whose Oregon City district is part of the TriMet service area, was one of three representatives to vote against allowing the agency to collect revenue from citations. In the Senate, Beaverton Democrat Mark Hass was among eight senators to vote against the amendment.